1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VIII.: John Thomas Rose
164. ROSE, JOHN THOMAS, Regent Street, Leith — Designer.
Model, in oak, of a Roman war-galley (Quadrireme), illustrative of Mr. Howell's theory of the Polycrota.
According to this theory, the "banks" were reckoned in the direction of the galley's length, and not from the number of tiers as generally supposed. On the common theory, Ptolemy Philopater's galley, of forty banks of oars, must have been nearly two hundred feet in its height from the water; on the above theory it need not have exceeded ten feet. The oars (40 in number) are put in motion by a handle at the side.